Summer Goals

Our Family Home Evening tonight was about "Organizing (our)selves" - and turned into a goal-setting planning session for the summer. We talked about the importance of setting goals and organizing priorities and managing our time usefully. I encouraged each of us to think of a goal, either for ourselves personally, or for our family as a whole. I was excited to see what the kids came up with, and must say I was pleasantly surprised. They had some great ideas:

Summer 2010 Family Goals:

~Ride our bikes without training wheels (Grins)

~Get better prepared for Emergencies by updating our 72-hours kits (Angel) (I think she remembers last time we did it, when they got to eat all the almost-out-dated snacks!)

~Potty train Wiggles (Grins) - we all got a kick out of that one!

~Continue having Family Home Evening each week, even when the Mr is working 80 hrs/week (The Mr.)

~Plan and carry out a family Service Project at least once a month (Mommy), such as

-"that house we saw has VERY long grass. I think they have NEVER mowed their lawn. Maybe they are too old or too sick or too tired or don't have children to help with their yard work. I think we should help them mow their lawn." (Angel) (apparently she thinks children help with yard work? except in our family?)

- "visit sick, old ladies" (Grins)

- "take treats to all our neighbors" (Angel)

- "write little notes for people" (Angel)

I love hearing my children come up with ideas. They are sometimes much more creative than me, and I am always amazed at their generosity and willingness to serve. I need to be more like them!

The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden....

....so that's what we'll do!

Our first Family Home Evening in our new house was all about how important it is to plant a garden, and how excited we are to finally have the opportunity, now that we have our own house and yard!

We started out small, with just 4 small plots; one for herbs (basil, sage, rosemary and chives), one for a raspberry patch, one for assorted vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, beans, spinach, carrots and cucumbers), and one for melons and squash. The children are most excited for the watermelon and pumpkins. Personally, I'm already loving the fresh herbs, of course.

We started with a quick lesson of the importance of gardening, then "dug right in" to the planting (literally). And the evening wouldn't have been complete without DIRT CAKE, of course. (Our kids are so trusting! They have never had dirt cake before but we told them it was fine to eat it, and, though they had puzzled looks on their faces, they didn't hesitate in taking a bite.)